1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel apparatus, and more particularly, to a plasma display panel apparatus having a filter for shielding electromagnetic waves and a filter support structure for supporting and fixing the filter to the panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
A plasma display panel (PDP) apparatus is an image display apparatus. The PDP apparatus includes a front substrate having a plurality of barrier ribs on it, and a rear substrate facing the front substrate where a plurality of discharge cells is formed between the front substrate and the rear substrate, by being defined by the barrier ribs. The PDP apparatus can display an image based on the principle that an inert gas discharge is generated in the discharge cell due to a high frequency voltage, and vacuum ultra violet (UV) rays emitted upon discharging excites a phosphor in the discharge cell, resulting in emission of visible light.
FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a conventional plasma display panel apparatus.
Referring to FIG. 1, a discharge cell is formed between a front substrate 10 and a rear substrate 18 facing the front substrate 10 and defined by barrier ribs 24 disposed between the front substrate 10 and the rear substrate 18.
Address electrodes X are formed on the rear substrate 18, and scan electrodes Y and sustain electrodes Z are formed on the front substrate where a scan electrode Y and a sustain electrode Z constitutes an electrode pair. The address electrodes X are arranged to intersect the other electrodes Y and Z.
A lower dielectric layer 22 is formed on the rear substrate 18 having the address electrodes X thereon.
Barrier ribs 24 are disposed on the lower dielectric layer 22 to form discharge spaces there between, and prevent UV rays and visible rays generated due to the discharge from leaking into adjacent discharge spaces. A phosphor 26 is formed on the surfaces of the lower dielectric layer 22 and the barrier ribs 24.
An inert gas is injected into the discharge spaces, and UV rays generated upon gas-discharging excites the phosphor, so that visible light of any one of red, green and blue rays is emitted.
Each scan electrode Y formed on the front substrate 10 includes a transparent electrodes 12Y and a bus electrode 12Z, and each sustain electrode Z includes a transparent electrode 12Z and a bus electrode 13Z, where the bus electrode 12Z is disposed at an edge portion of a side of the transparent electrode 12Y and has a smaller width than the transparent electrode 12Y, and the bus electrode 13Z is disposed at an edge portion of a side of the transparent electrode 13Y and has a smaller width than the transparent electrode 13Y.
The transparent electrodes 12Y and 13Y and the bus electrodes 12Z and 13Z are formed to intersect the address electrodes X. The scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z are covered with an upper dielectric layer 14 and a protective film 16.
Discharge cells having the structure described above are selected by partners facing discharge between the address electrodes X and the scan electrodes Y, and the discharge of the discharge cells are sustained by surface discharge between the scan electrodes Y and the sustain electrodes Z to emit visible light.
FIG. 2 illustrates a sectional-view of a conventional filter to be attached to a front face of a plasma display panel.
Referring to FIG. 2, the filter 30 includes a near-infrared (NIR) ray shielding film 51, an electromagnetic wave shielding film 52, a glass 53, an optical characteristic film 54, and an anti-reflection (AR) film 55. Each of the films 51 to 55 of the filter 30 is adhered to adjacent films by an adhesive film. For the convenience of explanation, the adhesive films are not illustrated in figures.
The NIR shielding film 51 shields near infrared rays emitted from a plasma display panel to prevent near infrared rays beyond an allowed level from leaking outside of the panel.
The glass 53 prevents the filter being damaged due to external impact and supports the filter 30.
The optical characteristic film 54 adjusts color temperature of light incident onto the panel to improve the optical characteristic of the panel and is formed by injecting a specified substance into the adhesive film.
The AR film 55 prevents light incident onto the panel from being reflected from the panel, thereby enhancing contrast of the panel.
FIG. 3 illustrates a connection structure to connect the PDP and the conventional filter.
A panel 32 includes a front substrate 10 and a rear substrate 18 which are combined.
A casing for enclosing the panel 32 includes a front cabinet 42 and a back cover 38. A conventional PDP apparatus includes a printed circuit board (PCB) 36 for driving the panel 32, a heat sink plate 37 for sinking heat generated from the PCB 36, and a filter 31 attached to a front face of the panel.
The connection structure includes a finger spring gasket 43 for supporting the filter 30 and electrically connecting the filter to the back cover 38, a filter support member 44, and a module support member 45 for supporting a module in which a PCB 36 and the panel 32 are combined.
As described above, since the filter 30 is electrically connected to the back cover 38 via the support member 44, charges accumulated on the filter are discharged out.
However, since the filter is recently manufactured in a film type which does not include the glass 53 therein, the filter is needed to be attached to the panel 32 only by an adhesive without help of the support member 44 which electrically grounds and supports the filter.
Accordingly, a new filter support structure capable of not only fixing the film-type filter to the panel 32 but also grounding the filter should be developed.